August 1, 30 BC: Octavian, later known as Augustus enters Alexandria, in Egypt, bringing the country under the control of the Roman Empire.

August 2, 338 BC: Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean

August 3, 881: Battle at Saucourt: French King Louis III beats the Vikings

August 4, 1693: Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pérignon's invention of Champagne

August 5, 910: The last major Viking army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward and Earl Aethelred

August 6, 1675: Russian Tsar Alexis bans foreign hair styles to those below the nobility

August 7, 1428: Valais witch trial proceedings begin in Valais Canton, Switzerland. These are the first organized witch trials

August 8, 1876: Thomas Edison is granted the patent for Autographic Printing.

August 9, 1936: Jesse Owen is part of the American 4 x 100m relay team that wins gold in world record (39.8) at the Berlin Olympics; his 4th gold medal of the Games

August 10, 1628: Swedish warship Vasa sinks in Stockholm, killing 30. The ship was unstable due in part to constant changes in her design requested by Swedish King Gustav II Adolf.

August 11, 2003: NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in it's history.

August 12, 1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World

August 13, 1521: Spanish conquistadors, under Hernan Cortes capture Aztec emperor Cuauhtemoc, in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire

August 14, 1281: During Kublai Khan's Second Invasion of Japan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near Japan

August 15, 1040: King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare's play). The latter does succeed him as King.